Vesicular stomatitis virus and pseudorabies virus induce a vig1/cig5 homologue in mouse dendritic cells via different pathways.

The homologous genes vig1 and cig5 were identified by differential display PCR as virus-induced genes in rainbow trout and humans, respectively. These genes are significantly related to sequences required for the biosynthesis of metal cofactors, but their function remains unknown. In this study, it is shown that the mouse homologue of vig1/cig5 was induced by vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) and pseudorabies virus (PrV) in mouse spleen cells. Among a collection of cell lines from dendritic, myeloid, lymphoid or fibroblast lineages, only the dendritic cell line, D2SC1, showed expression of mvig after virus infection. This dendritic restriction was confirmed by our finding that mvig was also induced by both VSV and PrV in CD11c(++) spleen cells, separated by magnetic purification or derived from bone marrow precursor cells. Similar to the fish rhabdovirus viral haemorrhagic septicaemia virus in trout cells, VSV directly induced mvig in the dendritic cell line D2SC1, but the PrV-mediated induction required the integrity of the interferon pathway. This result indicates that mvig is interferon-inducible like its fish and human homologues. Furthermore, mvig was also induced by LPS in bone marrow-derived cells. Thus, mvig expression seems to correlate with an activated state of dendritic cells subjected to different pathogen-associated stimuli.